As more businesses contract work overseas, sell to clients abroad or hire workers from diverse backgrounds, the need to function smoothly across cultures becomes crucial.

"Local businesses can't depend on expanding their markets only in Michigan. If they are going to survive they need to know how to expand overseas or reach into cultural niches such as the Latin American market," said Livermore, executive director of the Global Learning Center based at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids.

His latest book is "Leading With Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success," published by the America Management Association.

Livermore travels about a third of every year, dividing his time between overseas visits and training U.S. businesses and non-profit organizations in cultural intelligence, or CQ.

"Cultural intelligence used to be about having comparative knowledge of other cultures, but today it's impossible to keep up with all that information.

"Just because you know about another culture or country doesn't mean you know how to fit in and adapt," said Livermore, who also teaches at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.

"Some say that people are people, and that a Coke and a smile go a long way. I'm saying we need to find out what that smile means in a culture," he said.

Livermore has traveled across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australia both as a cultural intelligence expert and in faith-based ventures. His earlier books--"Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage our Multicultural World" and "Serving with Eyes Wide Open: Doing Short-Term Missions with Cultural Intelligence"-- approach CQ from a basis of faith.

Livermore's latest book for business expanded in scope after he met Soon Ang, a researcher in cultural intelligence. Based in Singapore, she had been referring Livermore's faith-based books on CQ to businesses. His latest effort incorporates Soon Ang's findings that had been only published in academic journals.

"There was growing pressure from practitioners who said we needed to make the information more accessible," said Livermore. Ang wrote the foreword to "Leading With Cultural Intelligence."

"We're moving in and out of different occupational worlds where we're all wrestling with cultural intelligence in different ways," Livermore said. "Conventional wisdom says that nearly all companies will work across cultures. Even 10 years ago those businesses were limited to Fortune 500 companies, but now you can work from home and be outsourcing to India."

His message is clear: "Many businesses won't locate here because this area is ethnically divided; the people who come here to work will feel prejudiced against. They're saying it's not welcoming, which is a subtle thing, so we need to know how to become more inclusive in West Michigan."

"Awareness is huge," said Livermore. "It's impossible to be an expert in all cultures, but you need to develop the capability to step back and ask how culture might be influencing how you do business. CQ isn't only about making more money, but about making the world a better place and treating people with dignity."

Steps to cultural intelligence:

• Read books about other cultures: "The Kite Runner" (Afghanistan), "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" (France) and "Nickel and Dimed" (America's working poor).